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- [00:00]
A
Sam.
- [00:35]
B
Hi everyone, this is Jess and Dylan from the Radical AI Podcast. You might have noticed it's been a little while since we've posted a new episode. We wanted to apologize for the radio silence and also come on here to share some news. Unfortunately, the Radical AI Podcast is coming to an end.
- [00:58]
A
Well, folks, this is it. This is the last episode of the Radical AI Podcast after three years, over three years of this passion project of ours. And we are so grateful for all of you listeners. And it's sad for us at the end of the day, really just schedules PhD life, graduation coming up for the two of us from our PhD programs, other career aspirations and other life things got in the way. And we have kept going back and forth about different ways that we could continue. But we think the best and most respectful thing to do with the podcast is to leave it as it is. This awesome time capsule of three years of conversations with amazing people who have touched our lives in so many ways, ways we will never have words to say how grateful we are for the folks that we have had on the show that have come on the show. And throughout this short little minisode, as we used to call them, we'll talk a bit more about all of that gratitude because there's, there's so much to say. But as we get this little minisode started, I just wanted to take us all back to the beginning. Some of you might have heard this story before, but I bet a lot of you have not, since I think we only shared it in the first, like, what, three episodes or something. This project started back at the FACT conference, back in, what was it? I think it was early 2000 and I had gone there on a whim. I was, I think, the only religious studies PhD student there. It was in Barcelona. And so I found some funding and I said, okay, I'm going to Barcelona. And I went and I was jet lagged the entire week. I did not make nearly as much of the conference as I wanted to, but I made the most important session, which was the one in which I met Jess. It was one of the last sessions of the conference and it was the one where people who didn't necessarily have a published paper yet or earlier career students could get up and introduce themselves and give a quick presentation about what they study. And I was sitting there and I was just like listening. I think I was sending an email and someone gets up and introduces themselves and I'm like, oh, that, that sounds nice. Oh, they study artificial intelligence. Ethics. Oh, looking at ethics, Computer science. Great. And then they mentioned that they're at the University of Colorado Boulder. And I said, oh, I live in Denver. This, this seems like it could be fun to meet for, you know, to talk about this stuff. At the time, I was, you know, trying to figure out what's next for my career. Religious studies was a calling for me, but I also wanted to do more, more tech, More tech stuff. And so afterwards I introduced myself and I said, hey, I'm Dylan. And she said, and obviously, you know where this is going, like, hi, I'm Jess. And I was like, oh, hey, would you want to, like, hang out when we get back? And so I can like, pick your brain about all the cool research that you're doing. And at the time, I think what we were, we were both either first year or second year students in our respective program. I think maybe first year students at the time. And it's. We got back, right? And we grab a, we grabbed a drink in Boulder. And I said, oh, well, I've been, I've been running this, this podcast thing through my previous institution, through my institution. But like, you know, there's some things that are really great about it, some things that could be better, but like, I really want to do something, like, really, really different. And Jess was like, yes. And I was like, what? And she was like, yes, yeah, let's do that. I was like, okay, well, I have some ideas. And so then we started, you know, meeting and talking and just a few months later, this whole thing was birthed in the beginning of the. The pandemic. And it changed our lives, you know, changed our lives forever, changed our careers. But that I just wanted to, I guess, set the stage of. That was the beginning of the Radical AI Podcast was this random chance meeting of a Religious Studies PhD student in Denver and an AI Computer Science Ethics student in Boulder, meeting in Barcelona at the fact basically Fairness Conference, thinking about ethics together and independently thinking about how we could change the world to lift up different voices in ethics and in a I ethics and you know, it became responsible technology. But you know, what a journey it's been and we'll talk a little bit about that right now.
- [07:02]
B
I remember when this show started back in April of 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic, when we expected a few dozen listeners to tune into our episodes. And now fast forward to today and thousands of people tune into our show every month from over 60 different countries across the world. I've personally heard from several people that some of our guests and episodes from the show played a pivotal part in their personal career journey, too. And these are all impacts that we never anticipated, but they all made our work over the last three years so, so worth it.
- [07:41]
A
Truthfully, we never expected this show to take off in the ways that it did. We really thought that, like, you know, 10 people were going to listen, right? Over the course of however long we were going to do it, we're going to release a few episodes with some of our colleagues, you know, Morgan Schoreman and Shamika Goddard and a few other folks were some of the people that, like, we knew from Jess's department that we were like, hey, hey, will you come talk to us? You're doing really cool stuff. And it just grew from there. In the last three years, we've partnered with organizations that we really look up to, like ieee, like the YX Foundation, All Tech is Human Ethical Intelligence. We're friends with a lot of the folks who run those organizations, and they're all just absolutely amazing people. We even hosted an internship with our two incredible interns, Lina Wang and Nikhil Dharmaraj, who both spearheaded our technology and power curriculum and our roundtable dinner series. We released 90 episodes with over 100 guests from the AI ethics community and responsible technology ethics community. And we did all of this while we were both PhD students working on volunteer time and nothing but passion for this project.
- [09:03]
B
And although we have put so many hours into this podcast over the years, this project would be absolutely nothing if not for the amazing community that has been with us through this journey. All of you, we want to send immense gratitude to all of our guests who have come on the show, especially to those who took a chance on us during our early days, before anyone knew this podcast's name. This show was never about us. It was always about you all to highlight the incredible research and work that you're all doing in the responsible tech discipline. And without you, we wouldn't have been able to share your incredible ideas and stories with the world.
- [09:45]
A
We also want to thank all of you, all of our listeners, for sticking around. Throughout the years, it's been incredible to watch not just numbers grow, because, you know, numbers growing can be fun, but watching the relationships grow and the conversations that we've had, the emails that we've had from educators, you know, all over the world who have said to us, oh, we use this in our curriculum. Like, oh, this conversation was really helpful for one of my students who was struggling to understand X, understand it that much better. And those relationships and those friendships that we've built, again, like, even in our careers and our dissertations and all of these things. Like, it's been the people. One of the joys of this project is that we get to talk with really amazing people and also people who are doing work that's near and dear to our research and near and dear to our hearts. And so, like, none of this would exist without listeners and all of the relationships that have continued to push us forward and support us in bringing these conversations to a wider audience. And again, this has grown bigger than Jess and I ever thought that it could. We know that some of you have been with us from the start, and for that we are so, so grateful. There are some specific folks that really helped us in the beginning. I think we want to especially highlight Emily Bender, who has been, you know, a constant presence, I guess, behind the scenes when we've had some small crises or when we've had questions, or when we're like, hey, hey, Emily, is there someone that we can ask about this and interview about this? And Emily's like, oh, yes, all of my friends who do this amazing work. And we're like, oh my God, these are all world renowned people and friends and scholars and all of this. And I also want to shout out Ruha Benjamin, who, besides doing amazing scholarship, was one of the first people who just during the pandemic who was like this, you know, this big name who we had written up on our whiteboard of like, this is the. These are the people that we want to talk on our show. We just sent an email and then Ruha responded saying, yes. And I think that's what it all comes down to is you all said yes to us. And personally, you know, Jess and I said yes to this podcast over and over and over again in its many different iterations. But you all said yes to, to listening to us, and that means more than you all could ever know.
- [12:46]
B
So at this point, you might be wondering what's going to happen to the episodes from this podcast and the resources we have created over the years. Don't worry, the content won't be going anywhere. We were able to receive some external funding and grant money several years ago, and we're going to use those funds to pay for the podcast and the website to stay online and accessible for hopefully another five years or so. And also, this is the moment where I make the final plug for you to check out our website, which has so many resources from over the years, including curricula, blog posts, all of the episodes and content from our various partnerships, and show notes and transcripts for every single Episode and panel and collaboration. You can find our website at www.row radicalai.org.
- [13:38]
A
our goal is to keep this podcast up, the episodes up, the resources up, the website up in perpetuity, if we're able to. And if you would like to help us do that, we would love for any sort of donations that people are willing to provide to help us keep this content and these resources up for as long as possible. I mean, you all know if you run a podcast or if you run literally any organization, you have the website cost, you have the hosting costs, you have, you know, for us, the transcription costs, you have all these different costs that even going forward, I guess minus transcription, but even going forward that we're going to need to pay on an annual basis or what have you in order to keep these things up. And so if there is any support that you want to provide or donate, it's obviously not an expectation, but if you would like to, please do send us an email. And on that note, you might also be wondering how can you reach us now that we are no longer hosting this podcast. So if you would like to get in touch with us either collectively or individually, you can contact both of us through, through our personal Twitter, our LinkedIn or our email accounts and we will be adding this information to our website, to the description of this posted audio or if you prefer to store that information now.
- [15:15]
B
Yes, so my twitter account is jessejsmith and my non student email is jessiejsmith01mail.com you can also check out my personal website at jessejsmith and you'll find all of the information to connect with me there. Also, I spell my name J E S S I E in case you were wondering.
- [15:40]
A
And you can find me on Twitter ylant Doyle. That's all one word, dylantoyle. And you can find me like Jess on LinkedIn. You can email me at Dylan Doyle, CO Eduardo. But if you just search Dylan Thomas Doyle, the Doyle is important there because otherwise you'll just get the poet. You'll, you'll find me. You can throw in like University of Colorado Boulder if you'd like. And yeah, I think Jess and I would, would love to hear from you if you have messages as well for us about how the podcast has impacted your lives. You know, we would love to hear that. Two, we will be continuing to monitor our email a bit and then less and less as time goes on. But if the show has impacted you, we would absolutely love to hear that.
- [16:38]
B
It really is hard to believe that these are going to be our Final words on this platform. I'm going to miss this platform and this project so much. Words can't describe how much I'm going to miss this community. But I'm also hopeful that we can all stay in touch, either through social media, virtual or in person chats, at conferences like Fact, or through collaborations, hopefully in the future. And I'm also noticing that this ending is a bit bittersweet for me. It's a sad and hard transition, yes, but it also paves the way and provides space for new creative projects in my life, which I'm definitely feeling inspired to do. So I really do hope that you all stay connected with me in some way, because I can almost guarantee that I'll be involved in more projects like this in the future, whether it will be a podcast, a YouTube channel, or some other multimedia project. You'll have to stay tuned for that. So although I am saying goodbye to this adventure, my public scholarship journey is definitely not over. And I hope I'll be seeing you all at the next destination. For now, though, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here to witness this beginning.
- [18:06]
A
This is the part in the script we've written where it just says dylan em Dash improvised final last words. And I don't think there's anything that I could say or anything that either of us could say that summarizes just how amazing this journey has been. We are so, so, so touched by all of the support you've given us, all the connections and relationships we've built through this platform, all the folks who have told us that we have sparked new beginnings in their lives. So as we move into our new beginnings, and like Jess, there's new projects on the horizon for myself, personally and professionally. But also, you know, Jess and I are both graduating at some point if our committees, you know, pass us, and new professional opportunities there as well. But as we go out into those new beginnings, we sincerely hope, if nothing else, that this podcast has sparked some set of new beginnings in your lives. Whether that's a new idea, a new challenge, a new anything, because that's why we create, at the end of the day, is to birth this newness and hopefully some joy into the world. Thank you all so much for being such an important part of our worlds, the world of the podcast, the world of AI ethics, the world of responsible tech ethics, but also personally, Jess and Dylan's world. Thank you.
- [20:30]
B
And for the last time, as always, stay radical, radical.